This is the Ministry of Defence policy for the replacement of medals for trans people. It includes guidance for serving personnel and veterans.

Extract from Document

1. Current medal inscription policy is to engrave a medal with the recipient's number, substantive rank, initials, name and Service or Regiment/Corps at the time of the issue of the medal. Any replacement for ‘loss’ or ‘theft’ has continued to reflect the details on initial issue but the medal is marked to indicate that it is a ‘Replacement’. For this reason, medals are not re-issued following a name change, for example, upon marriage or divorce.

2. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides transsexual personnel with legal recognition in their ‘acquired’ gender following the issue of a full Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). They acquire legal protection from having their former gender disclosed.

3. Serving Personnel. If a serving member of the Armed Forces has been issued with a GRC and wishes to have their medals re-issued with their revised details, the individual should apply in writing to the MOD Medal Office, marked ‘Personal for the Officer In Charge’, enclosing a copy of the GRC, sending back their original medal(s), and providing details of their new surname, initials and service number. The MOD Medal Office will treat the request in confidence and will re-issue the medals with the updated name, initials and service number, but retaining the rate/rank that the individual held at the time the medal was originally awarded. Medals issued under these circumstances should not be marked ‘Replacement’ and may be provided at public expense.

4. If assertions are made that the original medal(s) is/are no longer available and cannot be returned to the MOD Medal Office new medals will be provided at theapplicant’s private expense and marked as ‘Replacement’. The originals cannot be assumed to have been destroyed or to be unrecoverable.

5. Veterans. If applications are received from veterans seeking to have their medals replaced following gender reassignment having left the Armed Forces, the same policy applies as for active service personnel, recognising that if the contemporary service number was gender-specific, the MOD Medal Office may wish to offer a new medal without including a service number. Such instances will be considered by the MOD Medal Office on a case-by-case basis.

6. Assertions that the original medal(s) is/are no longer available to be returned to the MOD Medal Office should be investigated in accordance with current Departmental policy to determine whether a replacement may be issued, and whether this should be at public or private expense. Medals issued in these circumstances will be marked as ‘Replacement’.

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